Alexa once again found herself smiling at Henry as he mentioned wanting animals. In her mind, who wouldn’t want animals? Anybody who didn’t like animals made her think twice. “That’s so cool that your brother has an owl! I’ve thought about getting one, but the school owls are so handy…” She continued to think about it for a moment. An owl, or a rat?

She didn’t notice that Henry wasn’t comfortable, but sensed something in these words that made her brow furrow slightly. As he looked out the window, she wondered if he was worried about something.

When Loki jumped onto her seat she squeaked in pleasure, and then blushed with embarrassment. She lowered her head and focused on the animal for a moment, petting him while her blush receded.

“Yeah, I think they’re really cute, too! And since they’re supposed to be so smart, I look forward to maybe teaching it some things.” She laughed. Yeah, definitely seemed like she would be getting a rat next year, or maybe over Christmas!

Again, Alexa noticed some consternation on Henry’s face when he talked about his twin, but she didn’t know what it related to. She just hoped everything was okay. “Thanks Henry!” She said in response to his complement before she whispered to Alina. Henry offered to go, and Alexa looked at Alina, wondering how she felt about that.

"No, you two are fine! Perfectly fine," she said, glancing back to the two. She didn't mind. In fact it was nice that the two were getting to know each other more. It was just that she didn't really have anything to add to the conversation.

Of course there really was things she could add. She already had decided if she would get a pet that it would be a cat and she already had decided it would be one of two types. She already knew she wanted to give it a fancy name with a shorter, less fancy sort of nickname.

While back at home she volunteered often at the wildlife rescue that Alexa had seen, where she helped aid foxes, hedgehogs, raccoons, owls, and all sorts of forest creatures.

But with her sister leaving to Beauxbatons, her father vanishing, Clifton vanishing, her conversation just wasn't there and she knew she was a downer. She didn't want to be that way but it would take some into the school year before that would slowly begin to disappear and she'd return back to her happy peppy talkative self. For now, it was best to just stay quiet and not bring others down with her.

As Paige waited at the station, she remembered her old friend, Patricia. When Paige got her letter from Hogwarts, she knew she couldn't tell Patricia. Patricia knew Paige was keeping something from her and grew mad. She got in a fight with Paige and that was that. Then on she never really trusted people. As she looked around, she wondered what Patricia was doing. Her thoughts were interrupted by her brother, who had started hugging her. Her brother was much younger, yet they had become allies ever since their sister started being rude. Her brother looked up with watering eyes. "Don't go, Paige! Or I could come with you... maybe I can hide in your luggage?" Paige laughed sadly. "I'm afraid not... Mommy and Daddy would miss you too much!" As she started saying her goodbyes, her brother was moping. She ran on to the train. She realized that the train might be where she finds her friends. Paige fidgets with her hair looking for a cart. Because she was skinny and short, she struggled with the weight of her luggage. She walks up to one cart, but she was instantly scared half to death by a giant furry cat. She kept looking. She walked up to a cart with 2 witches and one wizard as she could guess by their voices. She knocked on the cart door. She shifted uneasily as she waited for someone to answer. She hoped she wasn't being rude. Being a muggle-born she had no idea if she was supposed to do things a certain way.

Henry listened and nodded toward Alexa's thoughts about getting a owl before speaking himself " yeah, I definitely understand. A owl is cool and all but with my brother's owl sending letters then there wasn't much need for another," he smiled at Loki who was sitting next to Alexa and almost looking straight at her while he watched her pet him. Loki wasn't purring through but you can tell that he was enjoying the attention he was getting from Alexa, Henry smiled since he was glad that his orange cat liked her.

Henry listened to her talk about getting a rat and training it, the boy thought about training Loki and still wanted to do it as he spoke " that would be cute if you trained your rat and I was looking at training Loki sometime. Maybe once you get your rat we could trained our per together?" Henry smiled at Alexa and ignored his cat who almost glared at him when he mention training him but Loki went back to looking at Alexa.

After the situation with Alexa and Henry offered to leave, he heard Alina mention that it was fine and in fact that everything was fine. Henry turned to look at Alexa as he knew something was wrong with Alina, he didn't need to be close to the girl to know that when someone said perfectly fine then something was wrong as he turned back toward Alina before speaking " are you really okay Alina? I don't mean to intrude but if you like to be alone or talk about some more private matters with Alexa than I could go?" Henry was so focus on Alina that he missed the small knock on their compartment door and his cat small his at the girl who stood behind it.

Interacting with @Alina Rosier, @Henry Knight, and @Paige Chase.

Sorry for the delay! I know, I suck!

Alina said that Alexa and Henry were fine, but Alexa wandered. It was unlike her to be so quiet, and she wanted to take a friend’s mind off of her troubles with Clifton and family. She just couldn’t think of what to say.

How was your summer, seemed like an awful question knowing what she did now. So she didn’t broach any topic with Alina. But with her free hand (the one not occupied petting the adorable Loki) she reached out and squeezed Alina’s hand.

When Henry spoke about training their animals together, Alexa laughed. “First I have to get one, but then, you’re on!” That sounded like tremendous fun, and she felt happy in spite of the loss of Clifton and Alina’s sadness, at least for a moment.

She was brought back to her deeper thoughts, however, when Henry questioned Alina, asking if everything was okay, saying he had meant to intrude, and wondering again if he should go. She hoped he wouldn’t; his presence brightened up the compartment.

At that moment, Alexa heard a knock on the sliding glass door to the compartment. She looked up and saw a shy-looking girl sitting there, her hand raised in the act of knocking. Alexa stood up, hesitated for a moment as she gained her balance on the moving train, and headed over to the compartment door. She slid it open and smiled at the new person, a little shy herself. “Hello! There’s room here, if you want to sit with us.” She hoped her other compartment mates wouldn’t mind.

"Thanks" Paige walked into the apartment, struggling to pull her luggage. She was glad that the girl didn't instantly close the door, or throw a cat at her like the other cart. She sat down at an empty seat and smiled shyly at the girl who opened the door. She could tell that they had been talking before she came in, and now they weren't sure if they could continue. Paige struggled to lift up her luggage on the top rack, but she managed. Her arms aked as she fidgeted with her hair. She wanted to be friends with these guys because it was going to be a long ride. She opened her luggage and carefully pulled out a tray wrapped up in tinfoil. A lovely smell filled the room. She took off the tinfoil, and on the tray were English cookies. Paige was very proud of the cookies. They were her favorite. If there's one way to make friends, it's by baking. "Homemade," Paige whispered. Sharing her baking with others who were not her friends made her nervous. She held out the tray for everyone. "I'm Paige, by the way." She smiled to herself as everyone looked at the cookies.
@Alexa Mackenzie @Henry Knight @Alina Rosier

Interacting with @Alexa Mackenzie | @Alina Rosier | @Paige Chase

Henry smiled at Alexa when she agreed to training their pets and whispered toward her almost "it won't be a competition you know," he laughed a slightly before seeing Alexa grab Alina's hand and Henry fell silent and smiled at Alina for a few moments.

However the peace ended when Alexa opened the compartment door to another girl who was standing there and welcomed her inside. Henry smiled a bit when she entered, the sudden commotion frightening Loki causing the cat to jump from his place next to Alexa and scramble back to Henry before watching the new girl's every movements.

Henry saw how she struggled with her bag and he got up as he spoke " here, let me help you," before taking his wand out and pointing it at the bag as he muttered "Wingardium Leviosa," before carefully levitating the trunk from the ground to the rack. He then would place his wand back in his jacket pocket and take a seat between Loki and Alina again facing across from Alexa.

He would offer the new girl a smile as he watched her take something from her bag before holding it out to the three of them saying homemade before saying her name was Paige. Henry would starched behind Loki's ears as he spoke " it's nice to meet you Paige, I'm Henry and this Loki," he gestured his cat a bit before smiling accidentally at Alexa for a moment.

"Really, I'm going to be fine," she said with a smile that brightened, glad for her friend's concern. Alexa was the absolute sweetest. "Changes are just a little hard to accept at first," and that was the truth but such was life. Always changing, always evolving, always growing.

She then gave a smile over to Henry, appreciating his kindness as well and gave a small one to the new girl that entered the compartment, not minding at all. They had plenty of room and she knew well from her first train ride last year how obnoxious some of the other passengers could be.

"I do think I'm going to take a moment though to see if I can find Rose," she said of her Gryffindor friend. She was also close with her and decided that she should probably find her to say hello before the next school year officially began.

Alina slipped her bag over her shoulder and got up from her seat, moving over towards the compartments' door. "See you all!" she said brightly. She opened it, just a little. Just enough to squeeze out because she wasn't sure if Loki was a flight risk and the last thing she wanted was to be responsible for allowing Henry's cat to escape and then she left the compartment.

Alina has left the thread.

Alexa gratefully accepted a cookie from the tray that Paige offered around. There was no way Alexa was going to turn down sweets! "Thank you! So tell us about yourself," she said to the new girl, with a smile.

When the compartment door had opened, and she had stood up, Loki had relocated himself back to Henry's side of the compartment. When she sat back down at her spot, nibbling the cookie in one hand, she reached out with her other hand across the seats to pet the cat again. She was practically enthralled with him!

She smiled over at Henry, about to say something, but then was surprised when Alina spoke, and spoke of leaving. Then the other girl stood up, grabbed her bag, and wished them all a farewell as she left. Taken aback a little by this sudden action, Alexa sat with her eyes wide for a moment, staring at the door where Alina had disappeared, completely forgetting what she had been about to say. She turned to Henry. "I wonder what that was all about, if anything" she murmured.

Finishing her first cookie, she shyly looked at the new girl and took another one said, hoping it was okay. There seemed to be plenty of them on the tray!

Paige handed the cookies to the girl and looked up as the second girl got up and left. Was that because of me? Paige looked toward the other two. "Sorry, that was probably me..." She mumbled. This felt weird. The girl asked her about herself. "well... I come from a muggle family. I am kind of shy, but it only started when my friend stopped being friends with me. Anyway, I like to bake, sing, read, talk to animals, and prank my brother. I love wolves! I told my mom that when I die I would come back as one. I don't know why. I have 50 million fiction books in my luggage that include wolves. Um, sorry I'm getting excited. Oh, er... my parents divorced this summer..." Paige's voice turned into a mumble.
Think about something you like. Something that makes you happy. Paige thought. Wolves. Baking. Music. Books. Animals. Birds. Paige was calmer now. The divorce made her feel like she did something wrong. She looked up again. "So, what about you guys?" Paige wanted to be friends with these guys. The cat made her nervous, but she told herself to get over it. Cats would be everywhere.
She snapped to attention to listen.
@Henry Knight @Alexa Mackenzie