All Aboard OPEN closed

Everything was going too fast. First the letter. Then the journey all the way to the city of London. Next, The Leaky Cauldron. Then Diagon Alley. And the school supplies. Platform 9 and 3/4. And now...

The train. It was huge. And loud.

Muriel had never felt so rushed and overwhelmed in her entire life. There was so much to do, and so much to ask. But the more questions her mother answered, the more questions she had. Like a never ending cycle. And now, it was already time to say goodbye and board the vehicle that would take her away to place she’d never seen for an entire year. So with a last hug from her mother, Muriel turned towards the scarlet red behemoth and slowly climbed aboard, her arms already trembling from both nerves and the weight of her trunk.

Fortunately, it was a lot quieter on the inside. That was good. But the people... there were so many! And all the compartments were already full. So as invisibly as possible, she made her way down the aisle, murmuring quiet apologies to anyone she bumped into or moved past, until she spotted a slightly less-full compartment with only two people inside, a boy and girl.

“C-Can I sit with you?” She asked softly to the boy. He seemed around her age and easier to approach, at least compared to the older girl. Though to Muriel, nothing social-wise was ever easy to her.

Miranda had decided to sit with someone else before she met the argumentative students in another part of the train. She was walking around and looking inside the compartments, just wanting to see who was there and what students would were like. She never really hung around people outside of her own household so being around people her own age interested her.

While she walking she noticed that she was around an area with more Hufflepuffs, well, at least the ones who attended Hogwarts in earlier years. But it wasn't very hard to tell which Houses people were going to be sorted in by how they acted and who they hung around. Miranda was sure she'd get into Slytherin, since it ran in the family and she wasn't that different from her other family members. But unlike her brother, Peter, she didn't care about only sticking to people like her, she liked to talk to anyone who was interesting enough.

Miranda noticed a girl speaking to someone in a compartment, and seeing that she was a little shy, she saddled up behind her and peeked into the compartment, aiming to surprise her. "Can I sit here too?"

Inside the compartment was a boy and a girl, and they looked alike enough for Miranda to see that they were related. They were both good looking, especially the boy, but she quickly tried to discard that extra information and looked at him nonchalantly. It was way too early to be thinking about liking boys, especially since they haven't even arrived at the school yet. She kept a cool, friendly grin on her face, pretending to be only mildly curious about everyone.

"Ay, yes, both of you can sit with us. i'm fine with it, and I don't care what my sister thinks, she can leave for all I care," he joked, smirking at his sister, who replied with an eye-roll, repositioning herself as she continued doing whatever the hell she was doing.

"I'm Landon, Landon Riley," he said kindly, extending his hand to shake.

"So, do any of you have any hopes of what house you'll be in? I honestly don't care, but i'm pretty sure my parents want me in Ravenclaw, like that's going to happen," Landon scoffed a bit, his sister looking up from her journal and mumbling agreement.

Whether that was agreement at him not being wise enough for Ravenclaw or agreement about their parents always wanting the family to be Ravenclaws, he didn't know, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to know. Deciding to settle for it being the latter, a little bit less harsh, Landon looked back to the two girls.

"And don't mind Beaux, she's a fourth year, a Gryff, and quite angry with me. You can pretend she's not here, she'll probably leave within a few minutes anyways to go with her friends," Landon added, aware that his older sister could be a bit intimidating at times.

It seemed only a day since the time he spoke to the professor, the very moment he told him the existence of Hogwarts and it's mystical students. Now, Daniels turn was on the horizon. He waited alone on the platform, many students were hurrying past him as he took a deep breath of thought. This was going to be a completely new world for him, something he never really imagined of being apart of.

His parents were supportive with his decision in going to Hogwarts instead of a average "Muggle" school, they just wanted the best for him and make the most of his gifted abilities. They decided to guide him to the platform and allow him to enter himself, saying their goodbyes to the son they cared for greatly. It was kinda strange being alone, this was the first time he was leaving his family for a long period, causing him to be anxious the journey ahead of him.

Eventually, a loud whistle could be heard from a distance. A vintage train came into view as it slowly came screeching to a halt in front of him. The people around began clambering on to the train in an orderly fashion, all of them talking to one another about what the year holds. Clad in a pair of blue jeans and black jumper he slowly wheels his suitcase over the train and enters, storing the many different items he has in the spacious baggage area.

Daniel made his way to a door which leads to the seating carriages, it seemed like it went on forever from the place he was standing. He makes a low sigh and begins to carefully make his way past the wall of people crowding the corridor, looking out for a empty space along the way. Luckily, the kid was able to find an empty room towards the end, letting him enter and sit down in an empty space and look out the window silently. There was something on his mind, he felt out of place in going to this special school due to his lineage. All the other kids seemed to have a right in coming here from family being "wizards" or from something else, this made him feel undeserving of the opportunity.

Maybe he was overthinking this, there's a reason why they offered him this chance to be apart of Hogwarts. All he had to do was prove himself...

After hopping onto the train, Tina began to check out the compartments. She had no idea where she should sit. Everyone seemed to have found enough friends to fill an entire compartment while she was still wandering the train like a helpless first year. Maybe she shouldn't have waited until last minute to board the train, but she wanted to spend as much time as possible with her mom and dad before she left. She sighed as she approached a nearly empty compartment with two older looking kids. 

"May I join you?" she asked, politely.

"No. We don't associate with first years," one of them said, staring at her with contempt. She was confused by their cold response. Did she say something wrong?

"I'm sorry for bothering you," she replies, meekly before turning away. If this is what people are like then she was glad she only had animal friends. She missed them all, especially Saldie the snake. 

Undeterred, she continued her search for a compartment to sit in. That's when she noticed one with three girls and a  guy. They all looked like first years, except for the older girl who seemed absorbed in what she was doing. After taking a deep breath, she walked up to them slowly. 

"May I join you?" She asked cautiously. With a huge fear of rejection, Tina sprinted into a different car.

𝓢𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓪 𝓽𝓻𝓪𝓲𝓷 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮.

Talia had never been on a train before. In fact, she'd never been out of her hometown before. She quite enjoyed the scenes she had observed on their way to King's Cross, and she assumed there would be more to see once the train started to move. Walking through the halls, her leather trunk gliding smoothly behind her as she dragged it. Looking for any compartment, she came to the realization that most of the seats were taken by older students, too intimidating for the anxious girl to enter.

In fact, there was no empty compartment, to Talia's disappointment.

It wasn't that she didn't like people. She loved people, she loved talking. She just needed to process everything. She hadn't even reached the grand school yet and she was already over-agitated. The new surroundings were a lot to take in at once.

But being alone to think wasn't happening that day. Talia settled on entering a compartment with a few seemingly okay kids, all around her age except one, who seemed older and, honestly, quite moody.

Talia kindly stood by the door to the compartment, waiting for the kids to stop talking before nervously clearing her throat.

"Hi! Uh, may I sit with you guys?" she asked quietly.

It seemed like the compartment was getting crowded. Miranda, who wasn't very found of being around a lot of people, especially in tight spaces, felt herself starting to get anxious and nervous. She glared at the new girl, even though it wasn't really her fault, but stopped before she could say something she'd regret later. She looked at the nice looking boy and then back at the hallway. "I wish I could join, but I think you have enough people to talk to now, so I'll leave." She smiled at everyone and then swiftly turned around, the grin disappearing from her face as fast as it had appeared.

She found her brother Peter again. She sat with him, since he was only talking with one friend now, and leaned against him, resting her head. It wasn't long before she started to doze off, even though the train was sort of loud. She dreamt of things she wouldn't remember afterwards, except for one that concerned giant purple frogs leaping into a lake one by one. When they came out again they were tiny flying lions with clown noses and bunny ears. She frowned in her sleeper probably wondering what it was about.

Peter jostled her out of her slumber by pushing her away from him. Miranda woke up, noticing that a girl had appeared, and she was quite pretty. Her brother was staring at her while she talked to his friend, like a fool. Miranda smirked, which made him blush in embarrassment, and he whispered for her to go away and stop being annoying. She shrugged and got up, leaving. She wandered around the chain, looking for other people to sit with.

Muriel gave a relieved smile and timidly shook the guy's hand. "I'm Muriel... Carroll," she replied back in a soft but polite voice before taking a seat. She kept her trunk between her legs, attempting to take up as little room as possible. She sat there quietly, staring at the older girl for a brief moment, wondering if she'd react to anything Landon had said. She turned back to him however as he asked about houses.

"Umm... I don't really mind what house I end up in...," she answered uncertainly, avoiding eye contact. The truth was she barely knew anything about the four houses of Hogwarts. Her mother has spoken about all of them at one point, but only in a broad sense. All Muriel knew for sure was that she was in Ravenclaw when she attended Hogwarts, but she never really talked about her house, only her friends and adventures. Muriel stared down at her feet trying to think of something else to say, only glancing up to see another girl standing outside the compartment.

She glanced back at Landon before returning to her feet, hesitating on whether she'd be allowed to invite the girl in or not, and decided to continue staying quiet; it was his compartment, he'd gotten there first. Now it was only a question of if he'd let her in or not. Perhaps the other girl would be enough of a distraction for him to forget that she even said anything.  

A whole lot had just happened.

Seemed like a ton of people came into the compartment, and then they left, but there were still a ton of people? Landon didn't really know, but he supposed the events of the previous minutes weren't all too important and just simply said, "Yeah, everyone can sit in here... as long as there's enough room," he added laughing.

What seemed like a lot of people had entered, and that was all he knew.

"So, I guess the train ride is kind of long, huh? There has to be something we can do to pass time, maybe get to know each other?" He suggested awkwardly, trying to break the silence hovering over everyone in the compartment.

"Uh, Beaux, what did you do during your first train ride to Hogwarts?" Landon desperately asked his sister, hoping for ideas.

"Uh, well, I sat, I got food, and I sat some more. Does that help?" She mumbled playfully, then laughed. "Just kidding. Try some games, like truth or dare, never have I ever, or something like that. Talk to each other," Beaux added on sweetly.

Confused by his sister's sudden kindness, he shrugged. "Okay, then. Thanks, I guess. So, uh, who wants to play a game?"