The tall, amazon-like ginger lifted Nora's trunk like it was nothing and plopped right down beside her! Nora was surprised and delighted. The other girl @Dineo Earle sat down as well.

Sorry to god-mod, giving you a chance to jump in when you see all this Dineo

“Uh, sorry for...If I’m like...Sorry if I’m being a nuisance. I’m Willow.” Nora did not think she was a nuisance at all, and enjoyed afresh her lilty Scottish dialect.

"Hel--" Just then Other Nora broke in, unleashing a string of questions. Nora didn't mind though. She enjoyed the chatter and New Nora's enthusiasm was rather infectious.

Favourite book? The young blond didn't read much. Her father supplied her with toys--she did spend a lot of time making up her own stories. She also enjoyed eavesdropping from time to time on his business meetings. Those and the book she picked up on Chinese civilization (during a business trip with her father) were her only stories.

Meanwhile, she was making a list in her head--a register of unknown terms or concepts that she would later research.

Margaret Atwood. Must be an author.
Handmaiden's Tails. Sounded like an interesting and delightful fairytale.
Women's role in society? She'd have to pick that apart later.
Quid-witch? Squid-ditch? No idea.

"I like reading about China," she said softly. It was possible, and quite a common occurrence, that no one would hear her.

Meanwhile there was something else in her register, her ledger. She noticed Willow tensed up when talking about her family.

"Well...Um...I was supposed go to grow up in both but it didn’t really work out." the redhead said.

Nora's heart swelled with empathy, thinking about her own mother who abandoned her. Was there someone else like her? Her father always said her mother was "strange." And then her father practically abandoned her at the train station, leaving her to figure all this strange stuff out by herself. Her large, mesmerizing eyes locked onto Willow, and then she looked down, not wanting to stare.

@Nora Fletcher

Once Willow was done talking, she had felt the other Nora staring at her for a split second and then look down. She looked at her, big blue eyes focusing on the girls features. Then she noticed that Nora had an empathetic look on her face, as if she knew what Willow was going through. At least that’s what Willow hoped it was.

”What about you Nora?” she asked, trying to be friendly towards the girl, ”Did you say what you liked to read? I didn’t quite hear you.” she smiled warmly, showing off the gap in her two front teeth and tucking her hair behind her ears, which was not something she often enjoyed doing. She preferred to hide and shy away.

Willow could’ve sworn she heard the small girl talk, and she was quite interested in what she had to say. Everyone in this compartment seemed to be interesting and unique, and of course she wanted to make new friends before she had even gotten to the school, so why not be as kind as possible? She was feeling especially kind and excited today. In her defence, a lot of exciting things were going on, new experiences were happening. This was a chance for Willow to reinvent herself.

@Willow Linach

Nora thought it was really cool that Other Nora read so many books, and that Willow climbed trees and played outside. The blond considered for a moment that she didn't have any interesting hobbies, but she pushed the notion away. She was, after all, on a magical train to a magical castle, and she was enjoying being in a room with friendly people.

Willow caught her eye and asked her to repeat herself.

There was a moment where Nora stared at Willow, and then glanced at Dineo and Other Nora, as if to be sure everyone was ok with her speaking, and that no one else wanted to say something first. When no one did, she spoke matter-of-factly, almost robot-like.

"I don't read many books, except, you know, childhood books. Nothing in school really... stuck with me. The only book I ever liked was one I got... er..." It occurred to her how strange this would sound, but she might as well finish her statement now, "in China. My dad..." she swallowed as a pang of longing hit her when she brought up her dad. She was both sad that he was gone and relieved he wasn't there to scold her.

"My dad took me to China on a business trip. And I got a book on Chinese culture. But... that's all," She finished lamely.

The train pressed on, a light rain pelting the windows without obscuring rolling green hills and pockets of forest. Nora held two of her schoolbooks on her lap--the Potions one and the Dark Arts one--partially to be posessive of them and partially to keep them out of the way. She sat prim and confined in her boarding school uniform.

There was a flash of guilt when she noticed Willow tense up. She didn't mean to hurt anyone or make them upset. Family was supposed to be a safe topic, right? But maybe it wasn't. She needed a list of safe questions to ask people so she could make friends. If they asked questions about certain topics, then it would be safe, right?

Nora focused back in on the conversation and listened to the other girls speak, smiling widely. No one had told her she was annoying yet! She made a mistake with Willow, but maybe it wasn't too bad? Maybe she wasn't mad? Maybe they could all be friends! The other Nora seemed really quiet. Were the rest of them talking too much? Was she getting overwhelmed? She felt a connection to her because they shared a name and she wanted her to be comfortable.

"From China? That's so far away. Is it in Chinese? Can you read Chinese? Can any of you guys speak other languages?" She snapped her mouth shut. She wanted the other Nora to be comfortable speaking. That meant no rambling. Would she tell Nora the name of her book if she asked really nicely? And Willow! Willow's favorite book was a sequel. She thought her mom maybe read The Handmaiden's Tale, but she wasn't sure. She'd have to owl her and ask if she could send the books so she could talk to Willow about them. And tree-climbing sounded fun! Were there any trees to climb around Hogwarts? It could be something fun to do when they weren't doing schoolwork. But she also really wanted to spend time in the library. But Elsa did tell her to make friends. Maybe they could split the time? If Willow even wanted to be her friend.

"Ha... no..."

New Nora was so sweet to ask all these questions, but each one made Nora feel embarrassed. She had gone and made it sound like she was really well educated, like she read history books and spoke other languages for fun.

Nora remembered her trip to China with her father. It was five long, luxurious days full of new sights and scents and beautiful landscapes. They visited a beach, although it was cold, and ate a lot of strange food, walked through beautiful parks, and rode through the city where so many shining buildings towered overhead. Her favorite excursion was to a gigantic Buddhist temple.

The walls were all bright colors mixed with gold--so much gold--and the statue of Buddha himself was all gold. People were pouring into the temple, each with a bundle of incense in hand. At first Nora thought they were batons or those folding fans. But no, they would get a handful of incense sticks and light them all together. Her clothes smelled like campfire after.

The truth is, the thing Nora liked most about China was the realization that so many different kinds of people are doing so many different things all the time. She kept wishing she would get swept away into another world where everyone was different and life was nothing like at home. (And look what happened!)

So, when her father took her to one giftshop and told her to pick out one thing, she passed up stuffed cartoon dolls, shiny fake jewelry, plastic lunch bags, weird snacks, and chose a book on the history of China because it had all these beautiful photos.

She hadn't actually read it much at all.

"It's in English," she said, wishing desperately that the other two girls would talk about themselves more. The rain was pouring down harder, and Prefects were walking up and down the halls. They were saying something about "uniforms."

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Interacting with @Nora Fletcher @Nora Edwards @Dineo Earle.

It was very embarrassing to still be looking for a compartment to sit in after the train pulled away from the station. Juniper's grip on her trunk handle tightened as a prefect gave her a quizzical look and she turned around again, only to bang right into the glass door of a compartment. Not that one, then. She walked away hurriedly, avoiding the prefect's bemused stare and cringing at her own clumsiness. Well, I have to sit somewhere. Just jump into a random compartment. It'll be fine. Just... smile. And make friends. It sounded so easy, but Juniper's hands were shaking slightly as she opened the first door she saw. She stuffed them into the pockets of her overalls to hide them and smiled at the group to mask her nervousness as she stood in the doorway.

Her smile was not only convincing, but rather lovely and friendly as well. Confidence was something she'd learnt to imitate, and nothing about her appearance betrayed how anxious she felt on the inside. "Do you mind if I sit with you guys?" said Juniper, her American accent prominent. She looked around the compartment, cocking her head to one side. There was a redhead with a backpack, and a girl with blonde hair who sat by the window. Two others sat next to her, one who was very, very tall and one with short white hair. What a curious group of girls. Well, at least none of them looked threatening or aggressive, and by the fragments of the conversation she had heard, they sounded friendly enough.

Juniper's brown eyes dropped to the trunk on the floor in front of the white-haired girl. "You know, you can store it up there," she said to her, pointing to the rack located above them. She picked it up and put it on the rack next to her own before sitting down across from them. Now that she had sat down, it felt a lot more official, like she had to stay here and talk to them. Juniper hoped they were nice, or at least entertaining. Hopefully they weren't anything like the airheads at her old school. "I'm Juniper," she added. "Nice to meet you. Are you guys," Juniper glanced uncertainly at the tall girl for a split second, "first years as well?"

@Juniper Yu

Lillian noticed right away that the girl looked at her as she asked if they were first years. She cringed slightly, it embarrassed her a little, being so tall and standing out. But she decided to speak.

“Yes...” She said quietly, clearing her throat, “We’re all first years.” She sighed, and then decided to move the conversation away from the girl, too nervous to interact with her much more.

“My mother is from China actually,” Lillian said, going back to what Nora had mentioned before, Well, both my parents were. But personally I’ve never been, and I’ve never really learnt the language, I didn’t really need to since I was born in the UK, but that’s obvious” She said, referring to her clearly Scottish accent. Lillian had always grown up around people who spoke English, occasionally her mother and father would but after her father died her mother didn’t really have much reason to.

Growing up in Scotland, Lillian did notice that she was pretty different from other people surrounding her. She was lucky enough to never have any issues with this, nobody bullied her for where she came from, but of course she couldn’t help but feel different. Even in just this compartment she felt different, apart from the girl who recently joined, Juniper. Lillian hoped that maybe she would get over the height thing, thinking that maybe she was just projecting. She was sure that Juniper meant no harm.

Nora did something she rarely did, which was blush brilliant pink on both pudgy cheeks. She hadn't blushed so bad since the last time kids pulled a prank on her in boarding school--it was always something to get her in trouble with the teacher. She hated it when teachers thought she misbehaved.

Here she was, dithering on about her trip to China, and Lillian's family was from China! She must have looked like a total idiot, and was only thankful she didn't say more.

Another student entered who, to Nora's surprise, also looked like she might be Chinese, although Nora wasn't sure. She sunk into her seat, though of course the new girl couldn't have overheard the entire conversation, and the new girl very kindly lifted her trunk and put it on the rack. Juniper, as she introduced herself, was pretty with friendly, delicate features and overalls which made her less intimidating. (Everyone was intimidating to Nora.) Nora squeaked out a little "thank you" as the new girl took her seat.

After a long silence, Nora realized she should respond to Lillian. She didn't know what to say. It was strange that she had been to China when a lot of people with family from China hadn't. Then again, she supposed, it was a long trip. And she couldn't imagine speaking Chinese. Her father had tried a few different foreign language courses for her--all online--but none of them stuck. French, Italian, Spanish--she just couldn't get the hang of it.

"Do you"--she looked at all the girls in the comparment--"want to see my book?" In a way, she thought, since they couldn't visit the distant Asian country, perhaps the book could bring it to them, like it did for her. She stood and neatly set the two books in her lap on the bench, and proceded to stand on the bench, facing the wall behind her, so she could pull her trunk down. It wobbled precariously and it was clear that Nora would not be strong enough to move it...

Lillian giggled a little when Nora turned so red. Then she immediately stifled it, she didn’t want Nora to think she was laughing at her, she just thought she was a little bit cute. But then she thought she was acting above her age, deep down she was just as scared and nervous as Nora appeared. She thought about saying sorry for her giggle, but the moment passed when Nora asked if the they wanted to see her book.

Without hesitation, Lillian nodded frantically. “Oh yes please!” she exclaimed excitedly before quieting down again, ”Uh yeah, sure. If that’s alright with you and the others of course,” she replied, calmer this time, and gestured to the other girls in the compartment.

Growing up in the UK, so far away from China, Lillian always felt a bit distant from her culture. Of course her mother always cooked traditional foods, they had a lot of Chinese traditions and things, but she still had never been to her own country, she could barely speak any of the languages they spoke in China. Maybe if she saw this book she’d get to learn more about the culture she would’ve had if her parents stayed there and she was born there.

Then she noticed that Nora couldn’t seem to get her trunk down, so she stood up too and brought it down for her, knowing her own strength Um...There you go.” she said with a kind smile before sitting down again.

@Nora Fletcher

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Interacting with @Nora Fletcher @Nora Edwards @Lillian Burkholder

Juniper's smile slipped slightly at the tall girl's quiet reply and the sigh that followed after. Had she accientally offended someone already? She held back a sigh of her own. Way to go, genius. Fortunately for her, the falter was barely noticeable and she turned her focus back onto the rest of the girls, pushing down the nagging voice in her head that told her she messed up. Her mother had always told her that she couldn't please everyone, although Juniper did hope that the uncomfortable tension between the two of them would disappear quickly.

She was thankful for the change of topic, eyes lighting up at the mention of China, although there was another awkward pause immediately afterwards. The white-haired girl looked like she was trying to figure out what to say, and Juniper smothered an amused yet sympathetic smile, looking out the window to pretend she hadn't noticed. She didn't really mind the silence, and she was very familiar with how the other girl might be feeling.

"I was born in China," she offered with a smile. "I usually go back during the holidays to visit family, but you know, we can't travel this year because of the pandemic." Juniper nodded as the girl in what appeared to be a school uniform offered to show them her book. Her brown eyes widened with alarm as the trunk began to wobble on the bench, and for a second she thought the other girl was going to fall on top of her. The eleven year old flinched backwards reflexively with a grimace, although the tall girl quickly came to her aide, using her advantage in height to put the trunk down.

A sigh of relief escaped her lips and the eleven year old visibly relaxed. "That was close. I thought I was going to be crushed," she said jokingly, looking at the two girls standing up. "Death by trunk." It suddenly occurred to her that she didn't know anyone's name yet. Ugh, how awkward. How was she supposed to talk to any of them without knowing their names? Juniper wasn't sure if their names had been said already. She sure hoped not - it would be so embarrassing if she had just forgotten. "Sorry, what are your names again?"