#woatcstarter

‘That’s Blaise’s new fiance?  She looks like a first year.’

‘Looks like Norwood got a wardrobe upgrade.  Wonder if Blaise refused to be associated with her until she didn’t look like a homeless person.’

‘Who knew the lass had leg for days?  If Zabini doesn’t want her...’

‘Poor girl.  Who the hell arranges marriages in the twenty-first century?’

The last had the redhead huffing in agreement as she handed over her chest to the attendant and stepped onto the train, arms crossed over slender frame defensively.  She meandered up and down the cars, searching for an empty seat with friendly faces and non-judgmental eyes, but after twenty minutes, she would have simply settled for an empty seat.  Her eyes darted around like a pixie, desperation slowly growing as she looked more and more out of place standing.

Finally, spotting a seat on one of the benches in the open cars, Ami made a beeline for the concealment it would provide, but was stopped by a boy who’d been sitting in the seat in front of her targeted one, standing suddenly and blocking the aisle.  She didn’t immediately recognize him, but he looked older than her, and towered over her by nearly a foot, leering down at her petite form.  “There she is.  We heard you might need some practice for your wedding night,” he chuckled darkly.

Jaw clenched, it took everything in her diminutive being not to throw a punch.  She recalled her grandparents’ careful instructions not to embarrass her betrothed with her usual antics, which had her taking a step back instead, away from the boy in front of her who took a step forward to keep the distance the same.  She ended up running into someone behind her, as well, and whirled around, expecting to find one of the arsehole’s friends blocking her path.  “Oh, for fuck’s sake...”

She trailed off when she landed on someone she recognized, who most certainly wasn’t part of the gross circle behind her.  “Um...excuse me.”

Over and over, dexterous digits rolled the small weight across his knuckles, shining in a shaft of sun, while dark eyes watched the dancing light of the reflection on the opposite wall of the momentarily deserted compartment. It was doubtful that it would remain so for long. The trunks and jackets sitting nearby told the tale of at least one other occupant. His eyes dropped for a moment to his hand. The small weight was his prefect’s badge, larger and differently shaped than the usual sickle or knut that often occupied those spaces between his fingers when he was sitting in relative idleness, it moved at first slowly, awkwardly until the young man had made adjustments to the motions, compensated for the edges and the pin.

Shifting where he sat against the window, Kai turned his gaze to the interior of the train, just in time to watch a pair of aurors, engaged in quiet, if tense, conversation as they passed in the corridor, the taller of the pair glancing in on him as they did so. Diggs and Hawthorne, if he remembered correctly. Diggs was a supporter of the Catapults, and Hawthorne liked the Tornados. He inclined his head as the two men passed, murmuring, “All right, fellas?” softly, only for it to be lost in the din of a few dozen people packed onto a locomotive long past its time, as far as the muggle technology that built it would have said. The aurors neither heard nor heeded him, moving on, the tension they felt evident in their stances and strides. 

“Nah, didn’t think so. Carry on.”

He pushed himself to his feet, as the small room’s inhabitants, a band of six, none any older than second years, hands full of various sweets and snacks. He smiled, stepping toward the smallest, a second year of his own house, a boy with a mousy mop of hair and a precarious grip on a chocolate frog. Kai produced a folded slip of parchment. “You’re Bradley, yeah? Your mum asked me to get this to you. Said to make sure you remember to get to Madam Pomfrey.” Handing it over, he placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “All right, bruv?”

Glad that that particular answer seemed to allay his fears, Odette left him to make new friends, and sought on finding a familiar friendly face.  Any familiar friendly face.  You’d think, being witches and wizards, that conjuring up a few extra cars to house the accompanying aurors wouldn’t be such a big deal, but here they were, all crammed onto the normal-sized train that was usually already fairly crowded at the best of times.  Along the way, she stopped and helped a few of the younger students find seats, resolved to stand the entire trip if she had to, though with Emerson and Malachai somewhere aboard, she didn’t think it would come to that.  At the very least, they’d probably squeeze her between the pair of them.

As she was crossing into a new car, however, the train decided to lurch (that was her reason and she was sticking to it), and Odette took a nose dive, destined to land face first into the aisle until a pair of arms caught her.  She couldn’t see who they belonged to yet, but she already promised the owner, “I owe you several things from the trolley.  Thanks, mate.”  She was helped back to her feet, and when she turned, there was a bright smile waiting for whomever happened to be there.  “Anything in particular you like?”

The train left the station smoothly, but Ginny had been antsy ever since, unable to keep still. It was too damn quiet. "I’m going to find the trolley." Ginny announced, not even bothering to see if the others had acknowledged her words, yanking open the compartment door and quickly stepping out.