Closed New Life. Who dis?

Joseph couldn't help but stare enviously at his fellow first years as they bid their family members farewell, some with tears, embraces, laughs of joy... Joseph had none of this. No one in his family would ever bother to see that he boarded the Hogwarts Express safely. In fact, they'd probably hope he'd somehow die trying to board it. No one in his family ever cared about him.

"That's the past," Joseph whispered firmly to himself, fixing his eyes on the scarlet red train before him, which was now chuffing out thick, grey swathes of smoke- the train was about to start. It would be a new beginning for Joseph. He'd have a new family. A new Hogwarts family that actually cared for him. Ignoring the parents on either sides showering their children with final kisses and hugs, Joseph broke into a run, clambering sloppily onto the train shortly before the train made a huge lurch and sped off down the track towards its final destination.

Panting, Joseph watched eagerly with his nose pressed against a window as the Hogwarts Express turned a corner, leaving Platform Nine and Three-quarters out of view. He'd better go find a compartment before they were all full.

Ambling down the length of the train cautiously, Joseph slid open the door of a compartment closer the back of the vehicle, his eyes widening in surprise to notice a bespectacled girl no older than him sitting alone at a corner. Seemingly deep in thought, the girl gazed out of the window, probably not realising someone had entered her compartment.

Perhaps she didn't want her train of thought to be interrupted, but it seemed rude to Joseph not to ask if it was alright to sit in this compartment first. He was more than okay with going to a different compartment if she said no.

"Um hello," Joseph's voice came out slightly more nervous than he had wanted it to be. "You don't mind if I sit here, do you?"

Nellie had indeed been in her own little world as she considered what life was going to be like at Hogwarts. So far, it had been realatively tame, if you forgot the fact that you had to walk through a wall to get here. Considering some of the stories she'd heard, she was in for an experience. So lost in though, she hadn't heard the boy walk into the compartment. Only his voice pulled her from her musings.

Startled, she turned to him. It was a full train. By all rights, she should have expected someone in her compartment at some point. Social anxiety was a jerk at the best of times, but now there was a cute boy in her compartment asking her if he could sit with her. "Oh! Hi! Um... Yeah. I mean no I don't mind." She gestured to the seat across from her. "Plenty of room." Nellie was pretty sure that by the end of this trip, she was going to look like an idiot, but oh well.

Remembering her manners, she stood and offered the boy her hand in a shake. "I'm Nellie. It's my first year." Whether he shook her hand and introduced himself or not first, the train would sway a bit putting the girl off balance. Thankfully, she managed to keep herself from falling entirely, steadying herself by grabbing the table beside her. Her cheeks took on a pink hue as a blush rose to her cheeks. She'd not made it two minutes before embarrassing herself.

"I'm Nellie, it's my first year," the girl managed with a shaky breath, fumbling slightly as the train lurched again, leaving her utterly flustered. Joseph knew only too well what it felt like to embarrass yourself moments after meeting someone. The experience was... understandably humiliating.

"I'm Joseph, nice to meet you," Joseph replied cheerfully, reaching out and shaking Nellie's outstretched arm, before gratefully sinking into the comfortable seat Nellie had gestured towards. Joseph leaned back into his headrest, letting a sigh escape his lips. It'd be a long trip. Perhaps Joseph should fish out a book from his trunk to read. Or he could find out more about a person he'd likely know for the next seven years.

Observing as Nellie resettled into her seat with a face a dark shade of red, Joseph chose the former option, reaching into his trunk and hauling out a thick book of deepest brown- Magical Theory, one of his favourite books out of all the books listed as required readings for first years.

Propping the book against the windowsill, Joseph read in silence, the only audible sounds being the occasional turning of a page and the enthusiastic chatter coming from the other compartments. Probably just older students sharing what an amazing Summer Holidays they had. Joseph knew deep down with a pang of sadness he'd never be able to join in their excited whispers. His family would never let him have a fun Summer Holiday.

Joseph tried to shut of the surrounding noises and he tried to focus on his book...

Nellie managed to shake his hand before doing her stumble. Once they sat and got comfortable, she'd thought they might talk. Maybe she could learn more about the wizarding world, if this boy had any information to give. Then he settled in and fished a book from his trunk. The blush that had already developed deepend. It was hard to be a shy girl that wanted social interaction.

For a bit, she laid her head on the wall of the compartment and just looked out the window, watching the landscape as it passed by at a fast pace. But, as children do, she grew bored by the view. After a bit, she decided to go fising in her own trunk. Eventually, she would pull out a sketch book and a muggle pencil. She had a quill, of course, but ink wells were a pain on trains. Besides, pencils were much more forgiving.

The compartment wasn't entirely silent, though none of the sounds actually came from either occupant. For Nellie, the sounds of the train and the chatter from the other compartments was a peaceful white noise as she focused on her sketch. On her page, a pair of young children began to take shape. They looked vaguely like Nellie. She'd sketched them a million times and knew how to capture their likeness, but also their nature. There was a wild glint into Micah's eye, but Mika's smile was sweet and kind. As she sketched, as she was prone to do when she sketched her younger twin siblings, she smiled. Her smile did seem genuinely happy if he looked her way.

Joseph closed Magical Theory gently with a soft thud. Being an unnaturally fast reader, it hadn't taken him long to finish the book. He hadn't gained a lot of new insights from it either, considering the fact that he had read through the book at least five times.

Gently placing Magical Theory neatly back into his trunk, Joseph's eyes widened as he raised his head and found Nellie sketching something on an otherwise empty piece of parchment. At least she had finally found something to pass time. Joseph watched amusedly as Nellie's little muggle tool (Jacob and Astrid used them; what were they called? Pansils?) scratched against the edge of the parchment, Nellie's eyes fixed unwaveringly on her drawing. Joseph noticed with a grin that the hue on Nellie's face could no longer be compared with the colour of hot chilli pepper.

"Art is a way of life," Joseph's friend, Astrid's comment a few years ago reverberated through his ears. "It's an expression of one's feelings, thoughts, opinions, all hidden in one picture, waiting to be uncovered. Bookworms like you would never understand," she had chided, a wild sort of gleam in her eyes. Was that true? The description had almost fitted writing perfectly; or was it something deeper, something only artists could truly grasp? Joseph would never know for sure.

"What are you drawing?" Joseph inquired, his voice passively neutral. Joseph usually wasn't the one who struck up the conversation, but he could tell neither was Nellie, and he was sure neither of them would mind if the silence was broken. Or at least, he hoped Nellie wouldn't.

Nellie had never put much though into her love of art, really. Beyond deciding what to sketch next, she didn't consider it any deeper than that. But Astrid was right. The young Hufflepuff was usually found with a sketchbook in hand. If she didn't have a subject, she usually sketched someone or something from memory, as she was now. The twins were her favorite.

While the voices outside of the compartment provided a kind of white noise, the question from within pulled her attention back to the boy she was sharing said compartment with. Her glasses had slipped a bit while her head was down. When she looked up, she pushed her glasses back up. She really needed to talk to her parents about contacts. Maybe this summer. "Oh. My little brother and sister. They're twins." She gave the boy something of a timid smile as she pushed the sketch book his direction, offering him a look of her work.

The drawing was pretty good. She wasn't perfect. In fact, if someone called her an artist, she would correct them, though that was likely more either modesty or self esteem. But if someone was to look through her sketch book, Nellie sketched them fairly often and knew how to capture them. "That's Micah," she pointed to the boy with shorter hair, "and Mika." Her finger moved to indicated the girl with longer hair. "They're four." The corners of her lips turned upwards into a smile as she looked at the likeness of her siblings. She was going to miss them so much while she was away. "Do you draw?"

"Oh. My little brother and sister. They're twins." Nellie responded, flashing Joseph a weak smile as she nudged the drawing towards him, inviting Joseph to take a closer look.

Joseph blinked, gazing down amusedly at the cheeky smiles of the twins still and unmoving, his eyes widening in surprise before remembering it was only a drawing, not a photograph. Of course drawn people couldn't move. But it had looked so realistic, so believable... it could almost pass off as a real image, a moment of the twin's life captured and frozen in time...

"It's amazing," Joseph marvelled, craning his neck to see each fine, delicate stroke the muggle drawing tool had produced, how anyone ever managed that, Joseph had no idea. Publishing a new worldwide best-seller... that was one thing. Having the power to replicate an image almost perfectly was another.

"That's Micah, and Mika," Nellie explained, a short pause between the names to gesture towards each. "They're four."

Joseph nodded his head in acknowledgement, still gazing fascinatedly at the drawing. Nellie had drawn it in one of the shakiest environments possible, yet he was sure even by an artist's standards was considered world-class. Joseph knew fully well the same picture could effortlessly be conjured with a simple flick of the wand, but to painstakingly do it manually... Joseph hardly doubted such a wizard ever existed.

"Do you draw?" Nellie enquired, perhaps genuinely interested, perhaps just to keep the conversation going. Joseph didn't really mind either way. "Hardly," Joseph uttered with a wry smile. "Though I wish I could. Maybe you can teach me," Joseph suggested, chuckling. "If we're sorted into the same house, that is," A chill ran down Joseph's spine at the thought of being sorted into houses. It'd be a nerve-wracking wait, the time all their fates were finally confirmed. What house would he end up in? His entire family had been sorted into Slytherin... but he didn't like his family much. They didn't like him either, anyway.

"What house d'you reckon you'd be sorted into?" Joseph asked Nellie, blurting the question he had been asking himself for the past week. Good heavens, did Nellie even know what the Hogwarts houses were? From the pansil Nellie had been using earlier gave Joseph a sneaking suspicion she was muggle-born. Not that that meant anything to Joseph anyway. Joseph had never found it fair that anyone was judged by their blood status. Why should muggle-borns be considered unworthy compared to pure-blood wizards? From what he'd heard a long wizard ancestry never quite made one a brighter person.

It was a good thing that Joseph didn't voice his thoughts on Nellie's drawing. Criticism was someting Nellie understood. It was realistic and honest. It could even be said that Nellie was her own biggest critic. Praise was something she didn't handle well outside of her immediate family. Sure, she liked to hear compliments and nice things, she just didn't know how to respond. Usually, it made for awkward situations. Even the compliment he did pay her was met with a deep blush. "Oh. Thanks." Was she smiling enough? Too much? "I draw them a lot, so I get a lot of practice. Usually the eyes are hard for me."

Her smile was warm and her blush faded now that they'd moved away from her work. "I bet I could teach you even if we're not in the same house. There has to be places to mingle." Reaching out, she took back her sketchbook if he allowed it, but she'd not return to sketching immediately. Now, she was in conversation. "Any one can draw, though. It's just putting together shapes, really." Perhaps she was understating a bit, but she liked the idea of trying to teach art to someone.

For a moment before the question was asked, she thought she saw some level anxiety on the boy's face. She knew the look from her mirror fairly frequently. The question was one she'd spent plenty of time considering, herself. "I... My parents are squibs- both of them." This boy didn't strike her as the type her mother had warned her about. He'd not shamed her for using a muggle tool in her drawing. "So, I don't know very well, but I know their families were in..." she paused, searching for the name of the house. "It starts with an S. But my parents said they'd be surprised if that was where I went." She gave a shrug over the conversation, clearly not quite understanding the signifigance. "What about you? Is there a house you want to go into?"

"What about you? Is there a house you want to go into?" Nellie asked, as Joseph straightened the creases on his shirt, deep in thought. That was a good question. He'd pondered over what house he'd end up in, but never what house he wanted to be in. Was there any house he had a particular longing to be in, even?

"I don't think I really mind being in any house, really," Joseph replied, casting his gaze to the distant hillside outside the window. "Every house has produced mighty and splendid wizards and witches of their time. I guess the only thing I'm concerned about now is the sort of company I get in my house, you know," Joseph explained, knowing what he had said had only been half-true. His parents, who had never really loved him, had a simple of expectation of their children- to be chosen to be a loyal member of Slytherin house, and to bring forth the legacy of their "blood purity". Perhaps that was what had been truly bothering Joseph, knowing it was fated for him to follow the path his parents had laid out for him. But what if he chose to walk his own path? Was Joseph really a young Slytherin at heart? He never quite felt like a real part of his family. He was sure his parents knew that too.

Nellie was lucky; she probably didn't have to go through all this pain, all this worry. It seemed as though she didn't even know much about the houses in Hogwarts. Let her stay that way, Joseph thought grimly. He was sure the Sorting ceromony would be tons more enjoyable without the accumalating pressure of which house one would belong to.