Saoirse took another deep breath and quietly closed the compartment door. Taking her seat in a far corner she noticed one of the other children, a blonde-haired girl had been crying. Between the puffy eyes and the tear stains on her cheeks it was a clear symbol something had disrupted her, and it wasn't just nerves. But she didn't think too much about it, she didn't want to bother the girl as much as she should; so she sat quietly and listened to some of her other compartment mates' conversations. After a minute or two she slowly opened her trunk and pulled out a book, Hogwarts, a History. Saoirse began reading, hoping to take her mind off of the growing nerves. Well this was her chance, to make possibly her only friends she'd ever meet at this school but she wasted it, reading. Like she always did when upset or bored.
She looked over again at the girl on the side of the bench, the blonde-haired girl with the tear stains on her cheeks. Saoirse couldn't guess what happened but she could talk to the girl, if she had the guts to do so at least.
Once again she took a deep, long breath and scooted over a little bit. She tapped on the girl's shoulder. "Hey, are you alright?" It was stupid question of course but she found it always helped when someone asked, or even tried to care.

Rose frowned. She felt bad for Serena when she had been crying earlier. She had been trying to comfort her while she was crying, but Rose was kind of clueless on how to make people a few better. Back in her hometown, books were her only source of entertainment, so human contact was quite rare.

Rose pulled out a pack of tissues she carried and gave some to the blonde girl. Another red-head had just come in, and although Serena was clearly disheartened and the compartment was already overflowing, Serena still allowed the girl to come in. Serena was clearly a kind-hearted person, and Rose liked that.

Rose decided to leave Serena alone for her to recuperate and turned to the red-haired girl.
"I see that you're reading 'Hogwarts, a History'. I have the same copy here," Rose pulled a book out from her backpack. She smiled and tried her best to be ''approachable''. "I'm Rose Morgan. A pleasure to meet you. What's your name?"

Rose smiled (unnaturally) and tried to make a conversation. Woah. What a scary word. "So...um...Chezem and Blu... what are your...uhhh...favourite colours?" She blushed and hid her face in her palms. "Ummm I mean... uh. Nevermind." She pouted and tried to play it off as a joke.

Even though that moment was kind of freaky for her, Rose didn't realize that she could be funky and weird without hesitating in front of that group.

Maybe, just maybe, they could be friends. She'd like that a lot.

@Chezem Balthazar @Serena Bowen @Blu Evergreen @Saoirse Dwight

OOC: Really enjoying this thread! I was just thinking that we probably should make another thread on Hogwarts Express after everyone does another post. Mail me your thoughts

@Rose Morgan  @Saoirse Dwight  @Blu Evergreen  @Serena Bowen


Chezem sat quietly listening to everyone as he pulled out a book. It was 'Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters' which was one of his favourite books. Of course, Chezem being Chezem, it was the French copy because why would he read in such a choppy language as English? It didn't flow off the tongue quite like his mother-tongue did and certainly didn't sound as pleasing to the ear. The blonde looked over at the rest of his fellow first-years and immediately answered the girl, latching onto the question as a way to keep a conversation going (which was terrifying for someone as shy as he was on occasion.  

"My favourite colour is green because it's so soothing. And I do not mean neon green, no, I mean a deep emerald or forest green because it reminds me of the forests and fields I grew up in near Paris." He said, smiling at the kids around him. "What about you? What is your favourite colour?" He asked as he sat his book down and placed a bookmark in it. Books should be respected like that. He couldn't believe anyone could ever fold the pages of their books, how barbaric!

It came as shock to Saoirse when another girl piped up and tried to speak with her. It wasn't something never happened, she talked with other children all the time. But after the way she'd acted in this past few minutes she couldn't put any of her reactions past, she definitely had looked foolish or maybe foolish was understatement. She was still for a second before initiating any kind of speech.

"Saoirse Dwight, I'm from Dublin...in Ireland of c...ourse." Wow! Way to go, idiot! You were doing so well and you just had to ruin it. Maybe she couldn't do this, Saoirse had never been one to twist her tongue and bite trying to speak. So she used the small boost of confidence from the start of the sentence to do what she did best, put on her photo-ready smile and turn on her charisma. Saoirse tried to do a faint chuckle, "well yeah of course, there's no Dublin in the U.S or something. So how is everybody today?" She could feel her cheeks turning red and hoped they would brush it off, at least she knew some of the other children's names now, Rose, Blu, and Chez? It sounded more like a nickname though. Oh well at least she had made some progress, on what she didn't really know but it didn't matter, she was in the conversation now.
"Rosegold…it brings back good memories for me."

@Saoirse Dwight

"That's not true, actually. There are two places in the U.S called Dublin. Dublin, Georgia, and Dublin, Ohio. I'm...I'm also a fan of geography..." He said sheepishly when he realised how much of a know-it-all he must sound like. "I'm really glad you cleared that up, otherwise I would have asked you which one you were from." He said. "I'm going to shut up now..." 

With that, Chezem turned his attention to his book, opening it and reading about how Percy and Annabeth were sailing with Tyson and Clarisse through the Bermuda Triangle on an old Civil War vessel that was full of rust and barnacles, barely chugged along, and was crewed by a bunch of Civil War-era zombies! He was truly enjoying the series and could hardly wait to finish it so that he could convince his parents to owl him the third book in the series. Rick Riordan was a simply amazing author, not as good as J.R.R. Tolkien, or C.S. Lewis of course, but he was still fascinating to read. He fiddled with the sleeve of his sweater before putting his book down and going to change into his robes. Upon returning, he sat down and curled up with his book for the rest of the ride.

Saoirse blushed sheepishly, of course the one time she tries to save herself from even more embarrassment, she gets shut down. Instead however she settled back into her seat, she looked back at the boy again and noticed that he was reading in French, Nana was quite interested so she picked up on it a bit of it. "Oh, I didn't realize so sorry. Isn't Percy Jackson the book series that came from the modernization of the myth, Perseus?"
Why did she ask that? Whatever, he wouldn't answer anyway Saoirse thought to herself, she just picked up her book and began reading. She did find that it was quite interesting, it was comforting to learn about her new home's background. Well...it wasn't really what she would normally choose to read, but it worked as a substitute, for now at least.
Soon Saoirse began to wonder how much longer this ride would continue on, how long until they reached Hogwarts? It made her nervous, and quite scared but confident and excited. Who would she meet there? What would she get into? How would her grades come along? They were all questions swarming inside of her head, maybe...just maybe the people in this train-car would be the first step in friendship.

Rose smiled for the millionth time. However, this wasn't a half-forced one. This one was genuine. She had never, never, seen as many people who loved reading as much as her in one place. They were all clearly shy, but the introverted atmosphere melted their worries. After all, they probably just wanted friends, much like Rose.

Rose thought that it was getting kind of creepy how she kept smiling silently like a psychopath, so she decided to speak up without missing a beat. "I don't really know, but that would be cool," she replied to Saoirse's question. Realizing that the question was meant for Chezem, her face full-on became a shade of crimson.

"Um sorry. I t-think that you meant to ask Chezem over there and I'm pretty sure that you're right. Not that you might not be wrong, I-I mean not in a bad way but just...uh. Sorry heh. I t-tend to babble when I'm nervous. I'm even kind of destined to be a Rose since I make people want to go away all of the time. You know, like thorns on...a Rose."

Her desperate attempt to be funny and relatable failed miserably.

How did her classmates back in her old school do it? They were always surrounded by friends. Even the teachers liked them! What seemed to be an easy feat for others was almost an impossible challenge for Rose. "Sorry," apologized Rose, even though she had no idea why.

"I suppose that I should stop talking now..." she mumbled.

Giving up, she took out her book and began to read, hoping to avoid more awkward conversations like this one. She wanted to be friends with these totally cool people, but how would she do it without being weird?

@Chezem Balthazar @Saoirse Dwight @Serena Bowen @Blu Evergreen

Serena felt someone tap her shoulder. Turning around, she was met with the red-haired girl who had just entered the compartment.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Serena gave a small smile. “Yes, I’m alright now. I was just reminded of something from my childhood…” She trailed off, deciding it was best to leave it there. Considering what had happened a few moments ago, Serena clearly wasn’t as ready to talk about what had happened to her dad than she thought.

She took the pack of tissues that Rose had offered to her. Taking one out, she blew her nose. She crumpled it up and put it into her jean pocket. Serena then handed the tissue pack back to the brunette. “Thank you,” she said with sincerity.

Serena then sat back and listened in on her compartment-mates’ conversation. She filed away Chezem and the new girl, Saoirse’s, favorite colors. It was then that Serena realized that she hadn’t introduced herself yet.

“My favorite color’s black,” She said, trying to keep up with the conversation. She then turned to Saoirse. “Nice to meet you, Saoirse! My name’s Serena Bowen,” She smiled.

Slowly, Serena was starting to feel better again. As long as she focused on what was happening in the present, she would be fine. Serena noticed that Chezem briefly left and came back in his school robes. Should she also change? Serena wasn’t sure how far away they were from school. It was probably a good idea to change now.

Standing up from the bench, Serena grabbed her school robes and walked over to the nearest restroom to change. When she got back, she placed her black and white striped sweater and jeans into her school trunk before sitting down in her previous spot.

Chezem, meanwhile, was off somewhere in la-la land and didn't seem to have heard the question as he kept right on reading. The best thing about the blonde French boy was also the worst thing. Whenever he started reading, he would get lost in the book and picture himself in the main protagonists' shoes, doing what they did. He didn't seem to be able to be pulled out of it. However, something must have gotten through his anti-people barrier because he looked up, blinking as he registered the question as well as the conversation going on all around him then.

"No. While the main character is named after the mythological character of Perseus, it is not a modern adaptation of it. In this, Percy Jackson is the son of Sally Jackson and the God of the Seas, Poseidon. The original Perseus was the son of the God of Lightning, Zeus, the man who can't keep it in his pants, and some random woman from some random village. Sally named his Perseus because that particular man is one of the few to make it to old age and die peacefully after a filling life. Meanwhile, all the rest died rather gruesomely."

"Nice to meet you, Serena!" Saoirse smiled, and managed to settle back down comfortably in her seat. "Pardon me for that, I'm a huge fan of Greek mythology and fantasies books I've just never read any Rick Riordan books before, I've heard he's pretty good though." Darting her attention back towards the blonde-haired boy, before drifting back off and snapping herself out of it again. Flying away into la-la-land will never do any good, you fool! She rolled her eyes for a second and tried to start up another conversation.
"What's everybody looking forward to this year?" Well, well, well look at that you're making proper words and sentences. Congratulations! A hidden smile crossed over her face as Saoirse fully relaxed and neatly placed the bookmark in the old book she had been reading and slid it into the 'Books Department' in her trunk. "I for one am interested in the different classes we will be taking this year!" Saoirse said with as much enthusiasm as she could, it was good enough though. She quietly awaited any answer as she thought about what would happen to the relationships she had developed in this train-cart. Saoirse hoped they would all stay friends, but who knows only fate decided how their story ended.