New Beginnings Closed

"Yeah, I have two cats and an owl at home, why parents thought it would be a bad idea to bring them to Hogwarts on my first year because I'd be so busy getting used to Hogwarts that I wouldn't have time to take care of a cat or an owl, which seems reasonable. What about you, do you have any pets?" Margaret asked.

She turned to the window to see that they were back in a forest again, will not really a forest because there were more aspens than pine and oak trees and aspens only grew after a forest has died. She had remembered her mum telling her that aspen forest weren't really forests because aspens were the product of dead trees or after a forest had already been whipped out after a fire or someone had taken them out.

Suddenly they went into pine trees and oak trees. I wonder if someone went by and cut a ton of trees down considering there weren't very many aspens and they suddenly stop in one line that would make sense. Maybe they were trying to clear a path for the railroad. Margaret thought, randomly curious on the cause of the aspen trees growing there.

The trees really were mesmerizing. Robert couldn't remember what they were called, but a majority of the trees had white trunks instead of brown, and they stood out from the rest of the landscape like a neon green shirt in a crowd of grey. Try as he might, Robert found it impossible to tear his eyes away from them. The train was moving at just the right speed so that if you focused, you could easily make out a single tree from the rest, while if you relaxed your eyes, they all kind of blurred together. He was so caught up in switching between the two that even though he kind of heard Margaret say something, it just didn’t register that he was the only other (awake) person in the compartment, meaning she was probably talking to him. Then, abruptly, all the white trees disappeared and were again replaced by more common trees. The absence of the albino arbors released Robert from their spell, allowing him to refocus on the events inside the compartment. Robert remembered having heard something that sounded like speech, but he had absolutely no idea what Margaret had said. “I’m really sorry, I totally zoned out there,” Robert said. "What did you say?"

"Oh, uh," Margaret said forgetting what she asked at first too. "Do you have any pets?" Margaret asked. Margaret smiled to herself I wonder what could be so mesmerizing about the trees Margaret wondered to herself how could be both be so mesmerized by something so ordinary?

She suddenly heard a loud bang from someone outside the hall. It sounded like someone had fallen over... no been pushed considering there had been laughing after then it sounded like he had gotten up and ran over to the guy who pushed him. My Margaret smiled to herself again, she was glad that people were having so much fun, well it sounded like fun.

She wondered why muggles hardly ever see magical creatures in the wild, I mean some muggles probably had seen something considering the unicorn was a popular "fictional" character in the muggle world. She shook herself back into reality she shook her head at herself getting lost in thought again. Gosh, it's not that hard to pay attention just focus. She told herself.

She looked at Robert trying to focus on his answer so she could respond, it would make a terrible conversation if they both kept saying "sorry can you repeat" and then the other person couldn't even remember what the question was an would have to remember, I mean come one Margaret pull it together. She thought she shouldn't have because it lead to her trailing off again Why am I talking in the third person to myself-- wait no focus! She thought and finally got back to reality.

"Oh, uh, do you have any pets?" Margaret asked. Robert was still a bit embarrassed that he hadn't heard what she'd said before, but he was grateful that she hadn't taken any offense.

"No, I've never had a pet," Robert replied. "Cats are out of the question for obvious reasons, as are dogs and birds because my father is allergic to them also. I guess we could have gotten some sort of reptile or hamster, but we never did." Robert had never really thought about getting a pet before. As a general rule, he didn't really like most animals, at least outside of videos or pictures. They were cute and all, up until they start excreting waste and eating all your pillows.

Robert started to hear some sort of commotion out in the hall. He looked out and saw that someone had been pushed by one of his friends and fallen over. He seemed to be laughing though, so Robert hoped it was all in good fun. However, while looking into the hall, Robert realized that he'd been spending so much attention looking outside or in the compartment, he hadn't paid attention to what the other students were doing. To his surprise, he saw that many of the other students had already changed into their school robes and were cleaning up their compartment. "Hey, we should probably change into our robes also, right? It seems like we're getting close to the end of the ride."

"Yeah, I have allergies too but they're not that bad with cats, and I understand not having a hampster too, I hear they smell, so I get it," Margaret said. She paused, a bit awkwardly for a moment then she turned back to look at Robert. "What house are you hoping to be in?" She asked.

Margaret knew her answer to this question, Ravenclaw of course, every witch and wizard in her close family had been in Ravenclaw, her grandparents, father, brother, uncles, aunts, everyone who had gone to Hogwarts had been in Ravenclaw except her great aunt and her sister who had been in Hufflepuff. But just because her whole family was in Ravenclaw that wasn't the man reason she wanted to be in Ravenclaw she also loved the virtue of the house and the history of the house. Ravenclaw didn't have any dirt with the history of the name and was mostly viewed as a good house, or Margaret thought they did, I mean why wouldn't they, I guess.

She was getting a bit antsy and was extremely ready to arrive at Hogwarts, she hadn't be told much about it because her family wanted her to see it for the first time without preknowledge or expectations, but of the few things she had heard was great.

Robert was starting to get a bit worried. He kept looking out the window of the compartment, now into the rest of the train instead of at the scenery. "Probably Ravenclaw," Robert said distractedly in answer to Margaret's question about which house he wanted to be in. "That's the smart one, right? Seems like the logical choice for me." Robert didn't quite realize how arrogant this sounded until after he'd already said it. However, he was so worried about all the other people in the train getting ready to unboard the train that he didn't really care.

"Erm, I think I'm gonna go change into my robes." He quickly rifled through his stuff until he found his school uniform, and then started to make his way out of the compartment for somewhere for private to change. "It was really nice to meet you, Margaret. I hope I see you again sometime!" he said, almost as an afterthought. This really wasn't like him, he was normally much more polite. However, he also really did not want to start off the school year on the wrong foot by being late off the train. Hopefully, Margaret would be able to forgive him for this. Robert opened the door out of the compartment, making sure not to wake the sleeping girl. Someone should probably wake her eventually, he thought. Hopefully, that someone is not me.

Robert has left the thread.