Boarding alone, staying alone? open

Because he didn't want to chance meeting his older brother after the dress-down he's given him, Reynard boarded the carriage closet to the platform from which he arrived, hoping he would luck out and find a free seat in one of the cabins therein. If he couldn't, he would have to go down the train, carriage by carriage, and if his brother or any of his friends caught him looking at them sideways he would end up spending his first day at Hogwarts at the hospital wing, recovering from a Jelly-Legs Curse.

With his cargo stowed away safely, he was carrying only the single book, holding it against his chest as he looked between the compartments.

There was the one with the three older girls, preoccupied with their conversation. It would have been awkward sitting between them – if they allowed him to do so in the first place.

The next cabin didn't hold much promise either. The boys sitting inside didn’t look all that older than him. First years? Second, at most. But they were a bit too rumbustious for his taste, and he didn't much look toward the prospect of comparing chocolate-frog cards for the rest of the trip to Hogwarts.

There!

A lone boy, hair like fire, sitting quietly in his cabin. Reading.

Perfect!

He gave him a courtesy nod when he entered the compartment, trying his best not to disturb him as he passed by and took the seat opposite. The boy likely didn't want to be disturbed, and Reynard could appreciate the sentiment. After sinking into the comfy bench, he opened his OWN copy of 'Hogwarts, A History', flipping through the pages to his marker.

Big raindrops started to drop against the window. Edward looked up and found himself facing another boy. He had not noticed him coming into the cabin but now Edward was watching him discreetly. They were probably the same age and Edward noticed surprised that the other boy was also reading 'Hogwarts, A History'. He wondered when the boy had come in and how much time had passed. Outside the view had changed, they had left London and the landscape was quite rural.

Edward felt awkward to just turn back to reading but obviously, the boy also had not disturbed him. Maybe he wanted to be left alone?
The fact, that he was also reading a textbook made him seem sympathetic to Edward and since he had not made fun of him increased Edward's hopes to finally make a friend.

A few minutes passed during which he ran through every possible reaction of the boy in his head. Finally, Edward summoned up all his courage and addressed the boy:
“Uhm.. hi. I didn't notice that you came into the cabin. I hope you had not said anything that I had missed before?”, he asked anxiously, and hurried to add, “I'm Edward by the way. Nice to meet you.”

Reynard has never ridden a train before. The Floo Network was his family's preferred means of transit. It reached anywhere that mattered, allowed for nearly instantaneous travel, and (for the most part), was pretty reliable. He's seen trains before, of course, and knew they were commonly used by Muggles, but only had a vague notion of how they worked. Now that he was actually in one, he quickly found out that the most interesting part of a train was the window looking out.

He spent the first few minutes of their ride with his face glued to the glass, looking at the scenery changing from drab urban gray to green countryside, brutal concrete giving way to open fields. The occasional stream twisting around the rolling hills.

When the novelty of the picturesque landscape wore itself out, he returned to his book, which offered a much more entertaining diversion for the hours-long ride. He liked history! It was like reading a novel, only it all really happened! His vivid imagination conjured up the images of the four founders and their struggles in the formative years of the school. He could find something to admire in each of them, save Salazar. That man reminded him of his father all too well!!!

Soon, he became completely engrossed in the pages of the book, only taking short intermittent breaks to look out the window whenever he felt too nauseated from the motion sickness. It was in one of those breaks that he made unintentional eye contact with the boy sitting across from him.

His tendency to interpret each word in the worst way possible prompted him to automatically raise his defenses. Did the boy really miss him coming in, or did he take a stab at him, implying that he was beneath his notice? He only eased off when he noticed the boy's anxiety – but not enough to completely let his guard down:

"Reynard. Nice to meet you too" he echoed. It was too soon to say if it really WAS nice to meet him or not, but he said so anyways, for politeness sake. A few seconds went by as he tried to think of something to say.

"Umm. How far did you reach?" he finally managed, his eyes directed at the book he was holding

Interacting with @Edward Foxe

The other boy's reaction seemed a bit mechanical to Edward, as if he was just echoing the greeting out of a habit. But Edward was relieved. The other boy had replied and not to make fun of him. He had introduced himself as Reynard and on the inside Edward was already celebrating about having made contact to anyone. "No matter how this turns out, it's better than before", Edward thought.

As the seconds passed, Edward felt increasingly awkward again. He hoped that Reynard would say some more because he also didn't really know what to say. His last interaction with a new person had been a year ago. Ed had tried to make friends with the girl who had joined their class back then. However, it turned out, she was not interested in boys at all and soon led the girl group to ignore him.

Finally, Reynard asked him: "Umm. How far did you reach?" It took Edward a moment to recognize that he meant the book they were both reading. The honest answer would have been "Oh, I read it already twice since I got it. I really love that book. I had not known anything of it before and it is so exciting." But Ed hold himself back. He had learned at his old school that reading a lot was not thought of as cool and reading textbooks over the holidays was even worse. Since Reynard had also been reading the same book, Edward supposed that he might not bother about it but just to make sure, he only said "Umm, I was just about to finish chapter 3", while he was checking the actual page he had stopped. In order to not stall the conversation again, he added, "I wonder, how the school is like in today's time. It's my first time to Hogwarts. How about you? Have you been there before?"

Edward had so many questions. He wondered about Reynards background and his expectations of the house he would be sorted into. But he patiently waited for Reynard's reaction.

Leaving Platform 9 3/4 was easy. Olive's best moments had always been away from the walls of what she had called home until a moment ago, so leaving it all behind actually felt like a burden being lifted from her shoulders. She felt...free. It was inside the train that reality hit her and she realized some things were still the same. Se walked through it, trying to find a compartment, her heart racing. Should I sit by myself and wait and see who would want to sit next to me or should I be the one trying out my luck in somebody else's compartment? - she thought.

Olive had never had much luck befriending girls her own age. It felt like they were always competing with her for some reason. Olive never thought she was better than anybody but it seemed like girls did not relate to her much and were always trying to show they were better somehow. Except for older girls who took her in as a younger sister. That had happened once and it was really nice to be welcomed into the group. The problem was her mom didn't like Olive hanging out with older girls and would make it difficult for Olive to spend time with those friends. To tell the truth, Olive's mom preferred that she was alone. Maybe because she thought it would be easier to control Olive. Or maybe she was just mean and wanted Olive quiet indoors all the time. But there was no way she could control Olive... Time would tell how wrong her mom was about that.

In any case, boys seemed to be nicer to her. There was no competition and they treated her more as an equal. The problem was her older brother who would get jealous and kick her out of conversations when he was around. According to him, girls did not know anything about anything and should be elsewhere playing with their dolls or something.

Olive had a couple of younger girl friends once. Two sisters. They were nice until they started fighting among themselves because the older one was trying to boss the younger one around or because both wanted to be Olive's one true best friend... She wondered what it would be like if SHE had a sister close to her age? Would they get along? She would never know...

Now it all came back to her, all the failed relationships. All that went wrong. Hogwarts was a dreamed fresh start and the very first time she would be able to stick to a group of people for 7 years! This HAD TO work! So she thought about her options... If she tried older girls, she would not be hanging out with them a lot since they would be taking different classes... And there was a good chance they would not want a first year in the group anyway. There wouldn't be any younger girls to hang out with this time either so the age of potential friends was pretty much decided already. Would boys be ok with her right away...? I mean... Would it be like in her neighborhood, showing up and asking what they were doing and waiting to hear what they said? Long shot... Risky too...

Please, please, let me find a compartment with friendly people...boys, girls, whatever... I NEED this to work out for me...! It HAS TO be different this time around... I don't wanna have to defend myself this soon... It never ends well... Please, please, let me find some nice, people...! No popular kid, no bullies, just...NICE. Her thoughts were pretty much a prayer to the universe or whoever could listen and would be willing to give her a hand. She kept walking as slowly as she could without looking unnatural, just slow enough to be able to peek through each door with the corner of her eye hoping to find someone who would look back with something resembling a welcoming smile...

"The thirteenth century" he nodded when he mentioned the chapter he was at "I won't give any spoilers then!"

He didn't have a problem admitting that he considered the history book very much like a novel, or that he enjoyed reading it. He wagered that he and the boy had that in common, seeing that Edward spent the last hour with his nose in the book.

And if he was wrong?

Well, if Edward found erudition and thirst for knowledge so distasteful that it cooled him off Reynard, then Reynard wouldn't have wanted anything to do with him to begin with!

"This would be my first year too" he freely admitted when the question was asked. He did have Gerard to tell him what the school was like, but even if he could be bothered to do so, Reynard couldn't rely on anything he said – not unless he wanted to find himself in detention on his very first day.

It was his turn to ask a question of his own now, and he racked his brain trying to think of something intelligent to ask.

"Do you know any of the other students?"

It was his own way to gently probe Edward, try to get a measure of him. If Edward had a brother, a sister, or perhaps a distant relative at Hogwarts, then there is a high likelihood his family is magic. Not that his pedigree mattered at all to Reynard, but being born to Muggles would be a very different experience than being born in a Wizarding family, and that could be an interesting topic of conversation.

But not something he would ask him directly

His attention was diverted once he noticed the young, brown-haired girl with the peculiar eyes standing at the entrance of their cabin. Since she didn't say anything, he didn't either, merely quirking his eyebrow inquisitively as she stood there, watching them.

@Edward Foxe, @Olive Jones

Olive was so lost in her thoughts, so nervous, she didn't even notice she had stopped walking and was now standing in front of a cabin where two boys were talking to each other and then stopped at the sight of her standing there. She felt so embarrassed, she wanted to run away... It's not like she lacked basic social skills, it was the high level of anxiety that had once again put Olive in some sort of trance for a few seconds. If they offered any courses on how to control a very turbulent mind, Olive would be all in for it! She learned to channel all her thoughts and feelings into music and arts in general but life was more than playing music, painting or carving wood. Something inside of her needed tuning, fixing maybe. It didn't happen often but sometimes she did get lost when she went too deep into her thoughts and feelings. On those occasions there was some damage control to be done afterwards if she didn't want to become the weirdo of the century. This was definitely one of those occasions...

She opened the cabin door as politely as she could. Her body language and facial expression seemed to be apologizing for doing something terrible.

Hi! I... I was just... I didn't mean to stare, I was just looking for an empty cabin, I didn't want to interrupt... This one is clearly taken, but... I just wanted to apologize for standing there like a crazy person. and she let out an embarrassed and yet sweet smile. Never mind! I'm sorry I bothered you! Enjoy the trip!

Then she closed the door and left as quickly as she could and hoping the boys would not make it a big deal and forget about her.

Just take a deep breath, Olive, you can do this, you can do this, it's gonna be alright... - she told herself in a very low voice as she walked away.

Reynard was still not making fun of him and even admitted to have read further than that. Reynard said that he won't give any spoilers as if he was talking about a novel. Edward had never saw the history book that way. He just wanted to know everything about the wizarding world and Hogwarts. But now that he thought about it, Reynard had a point there. History could be as exciting as novels, even though the history books they had to read at the muggle school were just stating the facts in a rather boring way. However, "Hogwarts, A History", had really been written well and Edward could read it for hours without break, just as the past few hours had shown.

"This would be my first year too", Reyard replied to his question and asked "Do you know any of the other students?"

Edward was very delighted to hear that Reynard was also a first year student. That means, they were both new to Hogwarts. But then Edward remembered that Reynard may still know more about the wizarding world. Maybe his parents were also witch and wizard or maybe even his whole family. Then of course, Edward had to be careful not to make a fool out of himself because he had had no clue about magic for most of his life.

Nonetheless, Edward started to feel more confident talking to Reynard. Reynard had been friendly so far and seemed curious not hostile and so Edward decided to share some more about himself: "No, sadly I don't. My parents only told me about magic two years ago. I had been going to a muggle school before that." Reynard would have found out eventually anyways, Edward thought, but then he regretted having talked about his background as he followed Reynard's eyes to face a girl standing in the entrance of their cabin.

Edward remembered his last encounter with girls and turned self-conscious again. He also felt a slight disappointment that he and Reynard were not alone anymore. Now that Edward had finally made a first friendly contact. But then Edward relaxed as he observed her closer. She looked forlorn and not at all bossy or mean as the other girls he had met at school.
She opened the door very carefully and stammered an apology, closed the door again and was gone.

Edward stared at the cabin door, looked back to Reynard and said: "Well, that was .. weird. I didn't mean to scare her away. Should we go after her? She seemed quite forlorn to me." But he didn't move and looked questioningly at Reynard. Edward actually wasn't like running after that girl but something in her reaction had made him want to explain his silence as she stood in front of their cabin.

Olive finally found a cabin with a couple of older girls. She asked if she could sit with them. They nodded and kept on talking as if nothing had happened. Olive felt her chest tight and wanted to cry. But her eyes kept dry. She had been so used to holding back her tears that they didn't come at all anymore. There was just a tightness in her chest and at times some pain. But not this time. She was used to being alone so she did what she always did when people ignored her, she let her mind go places and pretended no one was there. That's probably what kept Olive from letting her loneliness and pain turning into resentment and anger.

Yeah... Just more of the same, different address. What was I thinking?- she thought. And she wondered why she was so different from everybody else. She didn't look different. She didn't think she acted too different either. But it was clear to her that there was something about her that stood out to everyone somehow and kept them away from her. She was sure it wasn't something good or people would want to talk to her. Maybe one day I'll meet somebody like me. Or just somebody who will be ok with me just the way I am. Maybe I'm not that bad at all. I don't think I am. I AM AWESOME! Although all these words were just inside Olive's head, her face may have let some of it out because the girls gave her a quick side look trying to not be noticed. Then, when they were back to talking to each other as if Olive wasn't there, she pulled out her sketchbook and started drawing a single huge and beautiful tree on top of a mountain on a sunny day.