Compartment 7 Finished

She stifled a laugh seeing how scared he was and how scared kargen was. She couldn't hold it in. "Haha. It.. Its just.. Just a.. a prank. Haha." Her voice sounded a bit worn from crying. She sniffled and wiped her eyes and sat back down by the window. "We are almost there." She says quietly and distant as if her mind was sonewhere else. She didn't care if he knew she was crying. She just didn't want to talk about it in front of everyone.

She felt bad for Kaegen. He was so scared to be on the train and they decided to prank him and Adam. Tears were still rolling down her cheek just not as much as before. She stared out the window her mind going deeper into thought. All she wanted was to see her aunt or hear from her. Maybe she would write a letter as soon as she got to school. Gazing at the beautiful starry sky with the amazing castle. It was trily magnificant.

She opened her book and began to read. She just needed some time to cool down. She kept reading her book ad they got nearer and nearer by the minute.

That signal meant stop? What? Since when did a held up hand mean stop?
Kaegen looked at himself when the boy called the group ridiculous. He stood up fluidly, picked up his wand and then looked around the room, searching for a safe place. His eyes finally settled on the bench, and he crawled underneath it. He lay down and thought to himself. He was still pretty scared, but nothing psycho now. Under the bench was nice and cozy anyway. He thought back to all the spells he read off in that girl's book, and focused on them. Tried to remember as much as he could. Maybe he could calm down more, but he doubted it. It would probably be best if he just waited until they reached hogwarts. At least then he could have some solid ground beneath his feet and not this metal, moving piece of fear.
Kaegen pulled out the other two robes, rolled one up, and put it under his head. He used the other as a picnic blanket on which to lay down on. Well, maybe there would be some more interesting conversation. That would certainly help. It was really nice to hear them laugh. Laughing told you so much about the person. He was more sure than ever that the red haired girl was gryffindor. Her laugh seemed more defiant. The other girl, he wasn't sure. If hufflepuff really was where all the nice kids were, then she would definitely go there. He decided to share his observation with the group. Focusing on talking would bring his mind off of this train, right? "Ever noticed how people laugh differently? The red haired girl laughs defiantly, being funny in the face of something, the smart girl with the book has a sad laugh. but the girl I hit with my wand has a full laugh it sounds more complete. You three have very nice laughs. I think they're interesting. Hey, would you mind laughing?" The last question was directed at the boy he had slammed the door on. He probably should have paid attention to the names.
Kaegen didn't think he'd ever talked so long in his life. But the embarrassment of doing so did a very good job of keeping him occupied

Eris started laughing even harder when Michelle and Eri started laughing, and she dropped a mound of candy onto the floor. The candy falling just made her laugh even more. "God we're such messes. We're probably the weirdest first years to ever come into Hogwarts!" Eris snorted, and let out a little gasp. She covered her face. Had she just snorted? That only made her laugh even more. Sighing, she picked up the candy and threw it into her trunk. Satisfied with the amount of candy, Eris hopped back into her seat and looked out the window, pondering the boys words.

"I suppose people laugh differently, because they're all laughing over something different." Eris wondered if the others knew what she meant. Everybody thought different parts of a joke were funny, and everybody had different experiences in life that shaped them. Maybe that was why Eri sounded sad when she laughed, why she herself sounded defiantly, and why Michelle's laugh sounded full. She thought about what she knew about the other two girls, and wondered if their laughs were a reflection of their personalities.

Eris had to admit she wanted to hear what Adam's laugh sounded like, but she wouldn't had gone o far as to ask him to laugh like the boy had. "He's probably not going to laugh like he normally does, as it's forced. You'd have to make Adam actually laugh by telling a joke." She informed the boy, hoping to help his social skills. He was, after all hiding under some robes.

Adam raised his eyebrow. "I didn't realize I had so many fans." Smiling, he continued, "since we all like to laugh so much, why don't we hold a little joke contest until we get to the school? It'll be a good way to calm ourselves down, and maybe when Ava comes back it won't look like we got into a fistfight with each other. I'll start."

Adam thought for a moment about what he should lead with. He knew a few jokes that were pretty common, and while they were funny, he wanted to maybe try something not many people recognized. He liked to tell jokes, though he hadn't really done it in some time. When he was ten, he had had the delusion that he was going to become a stand-up comedian, like the ones his father was so fond of. His dad, of course, had welcomed the idea, and they had held many open mic nights for his mother while Dean was away at school. It had been fun. He realized with a pang how much he really missed his parents already. No, you can't do this to yourself yet, he thought. You haven't even arrived in Hogsmeade! Clearing his mind of the slight ache for now, he rummaged through his thoughts for something to use. Wait, he had one. Yes, this was going to draw a few laughs, and probably a few groans, too.

"Okay, this is really cheesy, so don't hate me for it. Ready? Why shouldn't you write with a broken quill?" He paused a moment and smiled knowingly at his friends before revealing the horrible answer.

"Because it's pointless!"

Kaegen reached into his sleeve and pulled out a quill. It must have been in his muggle shirt. The quill had a flat tip, and was for writing calligraphy. Kaegen personally was very bad at the skill, but it's still what he thought of. He looked at it for a bit, and was about to say something when he realized that it would make him look like a stuck up know it all. He dropped it, and thought of a joke. He had nothing. Absolutely nothing. With a deadpan, soft voice he gave a joke he just made up. Ripping off the other boy's completely. "Why do you not pick up acid salamanders? Because they kill you." He didn't think it was funny, but he hadn't found the boy's joke funny either. Maybe they just sucked at jokes?
Or maybe he just hadn't found the right one yet. It didn't really matter, the girls probably had better ones anyway. Besides, the boy probably just didn't know what a calligraphy quill looked like. It wasn't like very many people wrote with one or anything.
All this talking gave Kaegen completely new anxieties, which he took comfort in, in a strange way. It was just nerve-wracking. Not terrifying like that prank, or the train.
He though fondly back to his days of catching acid salamanders, and wondered if the one he had hidden away in the vial was okay. His thin, pale hand crept out from underneath the bench and grabbed one of the pieces of candy. The hand vanished back in his robe, and he waited to hear the rest of the jokes.

Eris rolled her eyes at Adam's joke. It simply was so terrible, that she slow clapped. "Bravo Adam. Truly incredible joke." Eris was already thinking of a joke of her own, but then the boy interrupted the silence with a truly awful joke. It wasn't awful like Adam's. This joke simply made no sense. It was terrible that Eris had to laugh. the way he said it in a deadpan voice was too much for Eris. She started giggling, pointing a finger at Kaegen. "That was comedy gold." She said in between laughs. She hoped he was sounding depressing and making a stupid joke on purpose, because if he was serious about that joke being funny, Eris would of worried for him.

"My turn," Eris said brightly. Hmm, what was a funny joke. She closed her eyes, remembering the joke her father used to find funny. "What do you call an alligator detective?" She paused, waiting for someone to guess. When nobody did, Eris finally responded.

"An investi-gator." She paused again, "Get it?" She grinned. It was a pretty corny joke, but hey, it was better than the one about the quill. Just by a little bit, an extremely small bit.

Eri had been sitting in the hallway of the train outside of compartment seven ever since she started laughing. She had resumed her homesick feeling and began yo feel tears pour down her cheeks again. She really hoped they didn't wonder where she was or she hoped they wouldn't realize she didn't come back into the compartment with them.

She clutched her locket as she looked at a picture album her aunt had made. She looked at all of the smiling, moving pictures and remembered each event they were conected to. The outside of the album just looked like an ordinary story book.

She stared at each picture continueing to feel homesick but she wiped the tears off her face in a failed atempt to stop crying. The tears stopped flowing as fast but still occasionly trickled.

After looking at her book some more the tears stopped completely. She wiped her eyes as she watched the moving pictures. She smiled and looked out the window seeing the castle was about five to ten minutes away. She looked back down at her book and began too look at all of the wonderful pictures and reflect on all of the memories each picture brought. 

He was pleasantly surprised. Someone had actually found his joke funny! 'comedy gold' she called it. The joke that girl made no sense too. He gave her a blank, confusing look. 'Whats an alligator' he wondered. He didn't say anything out loud because it would be pretty stupid if he didn't know what that was. He'd rather just be quiet. Rest on his laurels, so to speak. He pulled off one perfect joke, it was probably not going to happen again.
He thought about what kind of thing/person would have the name alligator. It sounded so weird. Bizzare. He had heard of gaters before. They kept water out of your shoes. Maybe they were related? Yeah, that must be it. Nothing else had a name similar enough. It must have just been a word pun, not an actual joke. He thought he heard someone trying not to cry outside the compartment, and the hand slid back out and gently closed the door. He wanted them to have some privacy. It was best to cry alone. Or with people you really cared about, but he didn't think he qualified. The train completely out of his mind, he smiled ever so slightly when he heard the sharp breathing calm down.

She put the album away into her bag and wiped her face. She still looked like she had been crying but she pulled out her defence against the dark arts and walked back inside the compartment pretendibg to read hiding her face so nobody would see her tear streaked face. 

She sat fown on the bench and began to read while becoming deep in thought. They were almost at hogwarts so she hoped nobody would ask if she had been upset or hurt. She didn't like very personal questions. She smiled thinking soon they would be actual students at a magic school. It was so exciting and it helped keep her mind off of being homesick. She couldn't wait to be practicing magic at one of the best magic schools for witches and wizards. She hoped she would be at Hogwarts soon so she could get out of this train. She didn't really like being in one thing for a long period of time.

She looked over the edge of her book watching the others curiously. What were they doing. It seemed very odd to her that they were all just laughing at each other. She probably missed something funny.

Ava had got changed quickly – she had never done so in front of others, so it embarrassed her slightly. She thought back to the moment she had purchased her robes, and had met Eris and Adam. It was a fond memory, and Ava was grateful she had the chance to spend some more time with them.
After they had all changed into their school attire, some of the girls decided that they would play a prank on the boys. Ava kind of wanted to participate – she had never pranked anyone before – but she remembered that she had promised the trolley lady that she would return the cart to her when Hogwarts was in sight. As Ava was rather sure they were very close to arriving, she excused herself and pushed the half-empty trolley back to the other side of the train again.
It took her a while to get back to the compartment, since the train was abounding with students. She noticed that Eri just entered, and saw her wipe off some tears – had she been crying? Was she homesick, or hurt? Again, it seemed like she had missed something important. She wondered if the girls’ prank had been successful, or had gone horribly wrong? In both cases, the story would be worth listening to.
She entered the compartment, and sat down on her ususal spot by the window. “Have I missed anything?” she said, not really expecting an answer. “Say, when we get to Hogwarts – let’s promise to meet up, all right? No matter how the Sorting may separate us.” She hoped they would share her sentiment. She did not know how they thought about her, but she wanted to keep in contact with them all, not ready to let go of the little friendship that had started to grow – the first she had ever had.